Judge William Davis QC told him: “You are a man with a dreadful record. You are a man who, when it comes to women, is frankly a bully. Your attitude and behaviour towards women is deeply worrying.

“Your victim did not know from day to day whether her life was going to be made a misery or whether she was going to be frightened to death by what you were going to do.

“Your conduct continued over months, vile threats, assaults and other criminal behaviour.”

And referring to the stabbing victim he said: “While the physical damage was modest the psychological injury to that man does not bear thinking about.”

Christopher Lester, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said the woman had been in a six-month relationship with Kelly in 2011 during which there were a number of incidents of domestic violence.

They met again in April last year but separated shortly afterwards and the defendant then began bombarding the victim with hundreds of calls each day.

On one occasion a support worker picked up the phone and heard Kelly making “distressing references” to a child the woman had lost when she was younger.

The victim also discovered some of her clothing wrapped around a windscreen wiper of a friend’s van and a bra which had been cut up outside her home.

Mr Lester said when the woman and her new boyfriend went to Birmingham Kelly approached them from behind and stabbed the man in the cheek. He later had to have treatment for potential HIV infection.

Following that incident the victim discovered a number of syringes on her doorstep and she also became aware that Kelly had left photos of her son and her boyfriend, taken from Facebook, outside her boyfriend’s flat.

Lee Marklew, defending, said despite the “vile nature” of the abuse he perpetrated the harassment had only been intermittent in nature.